Arnie Seipel

President Trump played golf this weekend, but he wanted to make it clear that he was not just kicking back and relaxing.

"The President enjoyed hosting Prime Minister Abe on the golf course today, which was both relaxing and productive," the White House said in a statement. "They had great conversations on a wide range of subjects."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe joined Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., for the weekend, and the two played a round with South African golfer Ernie Els at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., on Saturday.

If you were just watching the game on TV, the politics were mostly subtle. Sure, there were the political ads. There were ads for everyone from NASCAR to Airbnb, which has taken on President Trump's travel ban.

A day after Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee boycotted votes to advance the nominations for President Trump's nominees to lead the departments of the Treasury and Health and Human Services, the panel's Republicans met in a surprise meeting Wednesday morning and voted to suspend committee rules to vote on those nominees without Democrats present.

Former President George H.W. Bush wanted to be clear that there was no ill will keeping him from attending Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday.

The 92-year-old had decided to stay home weeks ago because of his advanced age and poor health. Bush is the only former president who will miss the ceremony. His son George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter are all expected to attend along with their wives.

President-elect Donald Trump is unabashedly praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, a day after outgoing President Obama issued tough sanctions against the country in response to alleged cyberattacks intended to influence the U.S. elections.

President-elect Donald Trump doesn't seem to like suggestions that his victory over Hillary Clinton was anything but huge.

Trump made false claims that Clinton's lead in the popular vote was due to illegal voting.

He has chafed at recount efforts in states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — even though such recounts pose no risk to Trump's victory, since he won those states by tens of thousands of votes.

President-elect Donald Trump won a convincing electoral vote victory on Nov. 8, but he is claiming falsely that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote.

The latest totals show Hillary Clinton leading Trump in the popular vote by more than 2 million. Trump tweeted on Sunday afternoon, "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." He did not provide evidence to back up that claim, and Trump's representatives did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

Donald Trump has been raising doubts about the integrity of the election for months, but his running mate and other GOP leaders are taking a more cautious tone.

"We will absolutely accept the result of the election," Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said on NBC's Meet The Press Sunday. "Look, the American people will speak in an election that will culminate on November the 8th. But the American people are tired of the obvious bias in the national media."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had a strained relationship with Barack Obama, but he's putting in time to get off on the right foot with whoever succeeds the president.

Netanyahu met privately with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for more than an hour at Trump Tower in New York on Sunday morning. Netanyahu met with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for about 50 minutes Sunday evening.

It was 1995. Bill Clinton was president. His wife, Hillary, had been through a bruising political defeat after leading a charge to reform health care. And Forrest Gump won the Academy Award for best picture.

Bill Clinton says that out of the hundreds of thousands of donors to the Clinton Foundation over the past 18 years, there must have been some people who gave to the foundation to gain influence with him and his wife.

But the former president told NPR that doesn't mean any donors received anything improperly.

President Obama is laughing off Donald Trump's sudden turn-around on his birth.

"There's an extra spring in my step tonight," Obama said to a dinner hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington, D.C., on Saturday night. "I don't know about you guys, but I am so relieved that the whole birther thing is over. I mean, ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change, none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate."

A man who was arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas on Saturday after reportedly trying to grab a police officer's gun intended to "shoot and kill" the Republican presidential nominee, according to court documents released on Monday.

The campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders announced on Sunday that his campaign raised $26 million in April, fueled largely by small donations, a drop-off from the $46 million he raised in March and $42 million in February, according to the Federal Election Commission.

The slowing pace comes as the primary season heads into its final month, with Sanders practically out of reach of the Democratic nomination.

The Ted Cruz and John Kasich campaigns announced apparent coordinated strategies to combat Donald Trump in select upcoming primaries — an effort to force an open convention when the Republican National Committee gathers in Cleveland in July.

In a statement sent out Sunday evening, the Cruz campaign said it will focus resources on Indiana, "and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico."

But after hosting two big-ticket fundraisers with his wife, Amal, that reportedly raised $15 million in support of Hillary Clinton this weekend, Clooney is defending that haul by drawing attention to a big difference in how the former secretary of state and her rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, are bringing in cash.

After terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday morning that killed more than 30 people and wounded more than 200, American politicians took to social media and TV news programs to respond to the violence.

Several pointed to the attacks as a reason to focus America's fight against Islamic extremism.

We're compiling responses from elected officials and presidential candidates here:

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has a message for the Republican Party: "We have to become more respectful of each other."

Speaking on the death of former first lady Nancy Reagan, Powell said he believed she would be "disturbed" by the way her husband's legacy is invoked by some people today. Powell spoke in an interview with NPR's Michel Martin on All Things Considered.